Monday, August 21, 2006

This weekend's project...

This weekend's project was to replace the tail lamp lens in the R. You can read about it here: http://forums.swedespeed.com/zerothread?id=64157

 My next autocross event is this week on Sunday, it'll be my first in over a month. Come back for updates.

My brother and his girlfriend Katie used the 900 last week on their visit to Seattle. He'll have a posting for us all soon, I'm sure. He got the best distance out of a single tank of gas to date (330 mi), and took it farther from home than I ever had (to Mt. Si and to Oak Harbor). I'm sure his post will be full of interesting anecdotes!

Posted by KR at 10:20:52 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Track Day in the V70R

So there haven’t been any posts recently. Sorry. I’ve been gone pretty much since August 9th until late last night. But on August 8th I took a day of vacation and attended the Barrier Driving Experience at Pacific Raceway in Auburn. It’s a car-control and performance driving school by ProFormance Driving School, subsizied by Barrier Motors for their customers to the tune of about $200, making the normally $475 one-day course a more affordable $225, with the chance to bring a co-driver for another $120.

 Group Photo: Click on any photo in this post to make it bigger.Our Seattle Volvo R group was invited by Barrier Volvo to come to the event. I probably could have gotten myself signed up anyhow because my co-driver’s (Larry, my father-in-law) significant other is the top salesperson at Barrier Volvo. In any case, there was a flurry of postings on Swedespeed’s R forum about what date worked best for a group of us to go, and so six or seven Rs ended up being registered for the event that day, including two wagons and the rest sedans. We also decided that our cars would do well with higher-octane fuel, so most of us had stopped at the 76 station in Auburn that sells 101 Octane unleaded fuel for $5.75/gallon. I mixed that with half a tank of 92 for a very expensive tank of fuel.  

The 101 otane pump says TRICK on it.

There were 19 vehicles total at the school that day, the others were a Porsche Cayenne V6, an Audi S8, two Mercedes (an S500 and a SLK350), and the rest were Porsches, mostly 911/Carrera/Carrera S/Carrera 4S, with a few Boxsters, and one Carrera turbo.  We started the day with the group photo, then some classroom instruction describing some driving exercises we would be performing.  Focus of the classroom session was on accident avoidance, driving posture (eyes high, chin up, hands at 9 and 3), and vehicle control. Then we headed out to the track to start our practice exercises.  The cars were split into two groups.

  

Brand new Porsche Carerra convertible in the slalom exercise. The driver wore birkenstocks and looked like he was straight from Eugene.

Larry and I were in Group 1. We ran a slalom each four times at increasing speed 25, 30, 35, and 40 MPH, while keeping our eyes up for a course worker at the end of the course to flag us to skip a gate in the slalom. It was challenging for me to keep the car at a constant speed through the slalom. The slalom event was paired with an ABS braking exercise, where we accelerated to 55 MPH and braked as hard as we could, letting ABS do its work. That was repeated at 60 MPH, then we did it with a cone about one car-length in front of us when braking from 55 MPH and 60 MPH. I aced it at 55, but hit the cone at 60. The thing you have to do is look at where you want the car to go, rather than to look at the obstacle. One of the other R-owners, with a Flash Green S60R (the R signature color in 2004 and 2005) brought his adult son along as a co-driver, he somehow ended up testing out the off-road capability of the R during that event.   

 

Whoops! "Please stay off grass."

Next we swapped places with Group 2, heading down to other end of the track to practice accident avoidance by driving through a variable obstacle course at constant speed, braking to a stop only after clearing the coned course. I wasn’t good at this, as I tended to lift off the throttle mid-course. Larry did better. The last event was braking in a tight decreasing radius turn, from 60 MPH. I knew from my autocross experience with the R that braking mixed with tight cornering isn’t the car’s strength. I took out the cones the first 2 runs, but the last run I actually negotiated the turn, the key was to brake hard entering the turn, but ease off the brake to help the car drive through the turn. Yikes.   Chris B's S60R in the avoidance maneuver. That Carerra convertible in the brake-in-corner exercise. Larry really liked the Porsche... I have him to thank for all of the photos.Next we headed back to the classroom tent for a little bit of intro to the Pacific Raceway track. We were shown the track map, and told how we’d be taken for a drive around the track at street-speeds in our own cars by our coaches, to point out where the best line is through the course. After that, Larry and I each drove one run at street speed while our coach, Kim, gave us some instruction. We were driving the course around 60 MPH tops, she said it would look much different above 100 MPH. I began to get really nervous.  Our instructor explains the course. After that, we broke for lunch. At lunch, we had an opportunity for the lead instructor of ProFormance to drive us around the track at speed in our own cars. I put the R in line behind several Porsches and got out my helmet. Before I knew it, I was next. Kim (our coach) told Larry and I to watch how smoothly he handled the controls, as that would be our goal on the track. Then the instructor got into the car, and away we went. Before I knew it, my R was heading down the front straight approaching 120 MPH, and flying expertly through the curves. I was feeling a little sick to my stomach from nerves and excitement. And then we were done, back at the staging area, and the instructor was on to driving the next car around the track.  It was totally exhilarating.

 

Now I'm ready!

While we getting these rides in our cars, one special Barrier customer was driving his Porsche Carerra GT around the track. Barrier had asked him whether he would be willing to park it around the classroom tent so their customer/attendees could look at it and behold its brawn and beauty while contemplating high performance driving. In exchange for parking his car at the track for three days, he was allowed to come at lunch time and drive laps. The instructors had mentioned the name of this guy earlier in the day, and Larry told me he knew a guy by that name. After our ride around the track in the R, the Carerra GT was done lapping, and Larry saw that its driver was his acquaintance, a man he had gone to church with at St. Andrews in Bellevue. They chatted for a while, and I was introduced. If they had bumped into one another before lunch, chances are good I could have gotten a ride in the $400k+ supercar. Easy come, easy go… right? In any case, it’s a beautiful car.  The end of the Carerra GT we should all get used to seeing. After everybody had gotten their fast rides, it was time for Group 1 to hit the track to start driving. We were to get three 25-minute track sessions, where our coach would ride along and instruct us about how to do properly drive around the track; i.e. how best to corner, brake, when to shift, etc. Since Larry and I were co-driving, at the 12-minute mark I had to come into the pits and let him drive.  My 12-minute sessions went by in the blink of an eye. The first session was spent getting a feel for the track at speed, and “building my course map” so that I could remember how and what to do at each location on the track. It was fun, but intimidating. Kim was a great coach, helping me move on from mistakes I made and focus on the road ahead, not what was already behind me.

  

Me on the track. Does it look like I'm going 75-85 MPH? I am.

After our 25-minute session, we watched Group 2 run for 25 minutes, then were back on track. We did this for three sessions, then had a wrap-up. I can’t explain or describe the exhilaration of driving around the track very well. That is the venue that my R was made for. It feels often heavy and large around town. It was buttoned down and well suited for the race track. And so fun! I did end up passing Barry in his Flash Green S60R once or twice, he tended to take the corners more slowly than I did. I also passed a new Carerra convertible, as the driver was taking it easy on his brand new car. I likely held up the Porsche shown behind me in the photos.   Larry at the helm, leading another Porsche. At the end of the day, the car had traveled about 100 miles since arriving at Pacific Raceway, and had burned just over ¾ tank of fuel (so about 13 or 14 gallons), the Average MPG display hovered at 7.1 MPG. It had been around 22 MPG before I arrived. Our Rs proved their mettle on the race track, and the Porsche people were pretty impressed by how our cars performed.  

  

You've gotta love Flash Green... check out the Rs on the track!

I can’t wait to get out there and do it again. Now my dad, my brother and my wife are all interested in going with me. I guess I’ve got the next 3 years of this Barrier program already spoken for!  There’s a post on Swedespeed following up on the day’s events, Barry even posted a video his son/co-driver shot. You can see my R held up behind his near the end of the video. One of the quotes said the Group 2 drivers would laugh every time my R wagon went by at WOT (wide open throttle). It doesn’t get any better than that.  

 

Posted by KR at 14:44:00 | Permanent Link | Comments (7) |

On the road again...

Because I've been traveling so much for work, the 900 hasn't been driven too much. Until now.

On Monday, Ani drove the 900 while the 9-5 was in the shop having its wheel bearing replaced. Our extended warranty covered most of it, we had to pay about $60 in labor plus sales tax. But we also had the front brakes renewed (rotors and pads), so the whole bill was like $660. It was the first brake job in the 9-5's 56,000 mile life; not bad. In any case, Ani successfully picked up the technique of double-clutch shifting into 2nd gear, this was the second time ever she had driven the car. She said she got  some strange looks from people who weren't expecting to see a blonde woman in her 30s driving the striped classic 900. She ran all over town, and had a good time driving the car.

That evening, my dad drove the 900 to my parents' house, so my brother and Katie can use it while they're visiting.  It was dad's first trip farther than around the block driving the car. Erik and Katie arrived last night. My brother just now called from Whidbey Island to tell me he got a rock chip, and the chip is spreading, it's already about 4 inches long. I guess that is one of the perils of loaning out your car. At least I have glass coverage on the 900. I'll be hitting up my brother for at least part of the $100 deductible.

In any case, someday I'll get the car back and be able to drive it around. But it won't be next week, because I'm back in Portland again. The next autocross competetion is on 27 August. I'm looking forward to it.

Posted by KR at 09:53:11 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Saturday, August 05, 2006

The Other Black Saab

I've barely driven the 900 lately. One trip to Sultan last Tuesday, and two to the Home Depot on Wednesday where each time it toted home more than 800 lbs of sand or concrete pavers.  That wasn't the best.

I haven't been doing any work on the 900 either.  That's because our other Saab has been taking up a lot of my time. Our 2001 Saab 9-5 Sedan, which we purchased new in November of 2001, has been having some issues I've been dealing with.

 Several weeks ago, we got a Front Lamp Failure message on the SID (Saab Info Display). I bought a new $15 H7 headlamp, and that didn't fix it. I figured the new bulb was faulty, and spent another $15 on another H7, and still the problem persisted. So I looked on the Saab Network bulletin boards for 9-5 Headlight problems, and found out that a small orange ECU in the underhood relay panel, meant to monitor headlamp functionality, will commonly fail and cause the headlamps to not work. It's a $160 part. So I phoned Scanwest, who had one in stock. Our extended warranty covered the part plus 30 mins of "book time" to replace it, so now that is fixed.

 While we were sorting out that problem, Ani got a rock ding in the windshield on her way to Northgate, on I-5. Every rock ding she has gotten in that car has been on I-5 southbound between home and Northgate (that may be a small exaggeration, but 3 dings have happened to the 9-5 there). We had another one just in May. This one is big enough that it may require replacement of the windshield, but I've called to try to get it filled. Filling dings is free through our insurance company (Allstate), but is a hassle. I finally callled them yesterday, remembering the hassle I went through in May of a long time on the phone, the repaiman standing me up TWICE, and finally a second, thouroughly spooky repairman in his late-'80s Oldsmobile that leaked oil all over our driveway. I've got Harman Glass/Glass Doctor schedule to be her "sometime" on Monday. I ws on the phone with Allstate and then their glass service scheduler (and also the glass shop) for 25 minutes yesterday to schedule it; being transferred 3 times  between departments to do so. Now I get to wait around all day for them on Monday. I love it.

In the midst of these little issues, the 9-5 has also developed a rotational noise that is vehicle-speed dependent. It seems to be coming from the front, and I've eliminated the possibility of a tire problem by rotating the tires myself, and then having them re-balanced yesterday at Les Schwab where they were purchased. The noise persists. I looked on Swedespeed, where the troubleshooting for such a noise recommends checking (1) tires, including pressure; (2) wheels, for straightness and balance; and (3) wheel bearing failure, which is not uncommon on 9-5s around 60k miles, Ours currently has about 55k on it.

I called Scanwest yesterday and made an appointment for a day when I'll be in town to investigate possible wheel bearing failure; that happens to be Monday 14 August. No Ani has just called me from I-5 to tell me that something that "sounds like gravel hitting the underside of the car in the driver-side from wheel-arch" is occurring at freeway speeds. I'm sure the lifting technique at Les Schwab has caused damage to the fragile rocker panel molding pieces or perhaps a mud flap or wheel-arch liner. Awesome.  At least the extended warranty should cover the bearing, it's a bumper-to-bumper warranty in effect until 100k miles or 11/21/07. Looks like we won't reach the mileage limit before next November.

 On a positive note, I'm going to ProFormance driving school (a Barrier Motors sponsored event) on Tuesday in the R. I'm contemplating mixing some 100 octane race gas with the 92 from the pump (half-and-half) to get the best performance from the R; but that fuel seems to be available only in Auburn. Perhaps we can get some tomorrow on the way to/from a BBQ in Puyallup. We'll see.

 

Posted by KR at 13:51:17 | Permanent Link | Comments (2) |